Fun PowerPoint gives clear view of conservation’s big role

Tom Eckman, conservation resources manager at the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, the agency responsible for long-term planning for the region’s public electric utilities, lives in a world of average megawatts, resource supply curves and integrated resource plan analysis.

That’s what makes the presentation he gave at the Bonneville Power Administration’s Utility Energy Efficiency Summit last month so cool. It’s actually accessible to mere mortals not versed in the  impenetrable jargon of our Byzantine electric system.

Eckman makes use of Forrest Gump, the 1970s era SNL Coneheads, the Muppets, the Blues Brothers and Bob the Builder, among others, in explaining  the conservation goals of the 6th Power and Conservation Plan.

OK, so the presentation isn’t devoid of graphs showing “lost opportunity” conservation achievements in average megawatts. And one slide actually has eight graphs; one hopes it’s there to poke fun at the power planners.

But at least he breaks the technical stuff up with humor, giving the ordinary mind a chance to digest what it encounters.

And the end result is satisfying: an understandable primer on how the Pacific Northwest can meet 90 percent of new demand with energy efficiency and another 22 percent of new demand with renewable resources.

What, not sure how we can meet more than 100 percent of new demand? Sorry, you gotta download the presentation for that.

(Full disclosure: Our version of Eckman’s presentation omits a slide that introduces the author and his Power Council colleagues, dressed as superhero action figures. If you want that one, you’ll have to ask the author.)

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